In the last months of high school, charismatic eighteen-year-old Sutter Keely lives in the present, staying drunk or high most of the time, but that could change when he starts working to boost the self-confidence of a classmate, Aimee.

Told in the words of Isaac, a Choctaw boy who does not survive the Trail of Tears, How I Became a Ghost is a tale of innocence and resilience in the face of tragedy. From the opening line, "Maybe you have never read a book written by a ghost before," the reader is put on notice that this is no normal book. Isaac leads a remarkable foursome of Choctaw comrades: a tough-minded teenage girl, a shape-shifting panther boy, a lovable five-year-old ghost...

When Finley Brown returns to her hometown of Christmas, Oklahoma, from boarding school, she finds things have changed everywhere and looks to find her own place at home. Christmas, Oklahoma, hasn't changed much since Finley Brown left for boarding school... except that her best friend is dating her ex-boyfriend, her parents have separated, and her archnemesis got a job working at her grandmother's inn. Finley certainly didn't expect to find the boy...

Thirteen-year-old C.J. records in a journal the conditions of the Dust Bowl that cause the Jackson family to leave their farm in Oklahoma and make the difficult journey to California, where they find a harsh life as migrant workers.

Easy going, thoughtless, and direct, Tex at 15 likes everyone and everything. Life with his 17-year-old brother, Mason, would be just about perfect if only Mason would stop complaining about Pop, who hasn't been home in five months. Mason just wants to leave Oklahoma for good. Can Tex keep it all together? The love between two teenage brothers helps to alleviate the harshness of their usually parentless life as they struggle to grow up.